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It was a shoe that had to drop and now there’s one of the prime coaching vacancies in the NBA for all and sundry to think about.

The Los Angeles Clippers cut ties with Vinny Del Negro on Wednesday, a highly-anticipated move after his three seasons on the job, and it could be the most lucrative of the many openings out there.

But the question has to be: How much will owner Donald Sterling kowtow to free agent superstar Chris Paul and the rest of the players as he goes shopping?

Paul can leave this summer — there have already been reports that he’s coveted by Dallas and Atlanta, both with money to spend — but he’s such a key part of what the Clippers are right now that ownership and upper management are most likely to at least consult him about the new coach.

Is it a good idea?

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That’s debatable.

While it’s important in the NBA these days that a team’s best player needs to get along and like and respect the coach he’s working for, the danger is that giving too much power to a player upsets the chemistry on a team or doesn’t allow a coach to truly coach.

Coaches have to challenge players, severely at times, and the danger would be any coach hand-picked by a player may not feel emboldened enough to do it.

That’s not to suggest Paul would take the easy way out and suggest someone he could manipulate but Clippers management has to be thinking about a way the next coach can make Paul better, not just the same.

But with a roster that could include Paul along with Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and a group that seems still on the rise in the Western Conference, it would be logical that every good unemployed coach around would be interested.

Given the other current openings — Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Phoenix and New Jersey — the Clippers job would be the most attractive.

And no one’s said that in more than a few years.

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Retirements don’t last

One of the big questions for USA Basketball was who was going to replace Mike Krzyzewski when he left his job as the head coach of the United States senior team after its gold medal win in London.

Turns out it was Mike Krzyzewski.

Coach K has signed for another run at world championship and Olympic gold medals. Given his track record, it was a no-brainer that USAB officials would wait for him to decide if he wanted the job again before searching out a replacement.

Krzyzewski will be trying to become the first USA coach in history to win three Olympic gold medals at Rio in 2016.

And even with a group of possible successors that would include Doc Rivers, Gregg Popovich, Rick Carlisle, Tom Thibodeau and Erik Spoelstra, Krzyzewski was the No. 1 choice.

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Maybe money doesn’t talk

Of the four teams left in the hunt for the NBA championship only one — the Miami Heat — has one of the top 10 payrolls in the NBA.

Miami, with the Big Three gobbling up a majority of the salaries, are fourth, San Antonio is 12th, Indiana 22nd and Memphis 25th according to various sources.

And given the size of the television markets in those four cities, the “big cities, big spenders always win” crowd is taking a beating.

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Not interested

One of the hottest coaching commodities for the various jobs that are open has taken himself off the market.

Stan Van Gundy told an Orlando radio station this week that he’s taking another year off from the grind to deal with some family issues.

Van Gundy, and his brother Jeff, had been seen as two of the top available candidates.

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‘Good’ losses?

Is it possible that in something as important as a conference finals, that a team could feel good after losing?

Probably not but to listen to the Memphis Grizzlies, who rebounded from a horrible Game 1 of the West final with a far better effort in a Game 2 defeat, and the Indiana Pacers, who were a LeBron James overtime buzzer-beater from stealing Game 1 of the East final on the road, there are positives to take away.

Trouble is, every game is different and what works one night may not work the next; there’s rarely a true “carryover” from one to the other.

Nothing But Net is a weekly column looking at issues around the league

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